


Focus Switch

by Morgane (smilla840)



Series: Perspective [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-04 00:29:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1074895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilla840/pseuds/Morgane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha has a plan. It involves Tony Stark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Focus Switch

**Author's Note:**

> This picks up directly where Development left off.
> 
> Side-note: from what I’ve been able to find (not sure how reliable it is), LMDs were created by SHIELD in the Marvel universe. Since this is movie-based and Tony is the one who mentions them, I’m made him creator (because Tony). Sorry?

Phil wakes up slowly. Clint is half-sprawled on top of him, with an arm slung across Phil’s chest and his face smashed against his throat. He’s fast asleep and a bit heavy, and his breath tickles every time he exhales. 

Phil smiles. He could get used to this.

It’s late, so late it may have become early again, but Phil seems to have misplaced his watch. They definitely missed dinner, as his stomach reminds him when it growls. Clint hums in his sleep, curling tighter against him as though sensing his half-hearted thought to go hunt for something to eat. And Phil must really be hungry, because he’d swear he can actually _smell_ food.

The only reason he doesn’t jump out of his skin when Natasha suddenly appears in his line of sight is because he’s a trained agent, and a damn good one too – that, and Clint’s body is keeping him pinned to the bed. Still his heart rate spikes, and Clint makes another of those snuffling sounds, nuzzling against his throat as if trying to soothe him.

“Natasha,” Phil says, calmer already, and she quirks an eyebrow at him. Next to him, Clint cracks an eye open and groans.

“Go away,” he tells her through a yawn. “I want to have more sex with Phil.”

Natasha snorts, and Phil fights the urge to lift the duvet over his head. 

“You can after I’m gone. Now get dressed. We have to talk, and I’ve got food.”

Clint grumbles but he does roll onto his back, allowing Phil to get out of bed before following suit at a slower pace. They’re not particularly efficient about it, stealing kisses as they make themselves presentable – or try to, anyway: Clint’s shirt is still somewhere in the living room, and by the time they make their way out of the bedroom Phil’s pretty sure his hair is in even more disarray than it was when he first woke up. 

Natasha throws Clint’s shirt at his head and gives Phil a kiss on the cheek, which he knows to treasure. 

“It’s good to see you,” he says. They haven’t seen each other since that day on the helicarrier, right before the battle, and while he’s talked to her a few times since then, it’s not the same. He’s missed her, not in the same way he’s missed Clint, but vivid and real all the same. Natasha is too consummate a spy to let her voice betray her true feelings over the phone – Phil once heard her report the all-clear on the comms in a calm and steady voice, only to find out she had three bullets in her when he got to the extraction point. Because of that, he’s always found it easier to gauge how she’s really doing in person, and as he looks at her now she seems okay. He’s glad.

“How are you?” he still asks because it’s expected, and she smiles.

“I’m fine. How are _you_?”

“Good. I’m good,” he says, unconsciously glancing at Clint who’s finishing buttoning his shirt, and she nods knowingly.

“I bet.”

Phil shakes his head fondly and busies himself with unpacking the food while Clint grabs Natasha and pulls her into a bear hug, which she endures with a roll of her eyes. 

“Hey, Nat,” Clint says before she pushes him away, and he goes easily, gravitating towards the food and Phil.

It’s been a while since Phil’s found himself eating Chinese at 4 am on a lumpy couch with Clint and Natasha. There is something comfortable about it – he can relax with them, be himself and not have to put up a front. It’s not something he has with his new team – not yet anyway. They haven’t worked together long enough, and sometimes they make him feel old, most of its members twenty years his junior or more. The dynamics aren’t the same either: he’s their boss, while he always was Clint’s and Natasha’s handler. As similar as the two may sound, in practice it isn’t and the three of them have always been on a more equal footing. 

They make small talk while they eat – which, for them, is gossiping about the latest batch of junior agents and the new rifle R&D is developing – and once they’ve cleared away the food Natasha updates them on what she’s been up to.

“Hill and I have narrowed it down to three names – Matthews, Richardson and Yu.” 

Phil nods to himself. Out of the three, he knows one well and the other two in passing. He isn’t sure which is worse – to be betrayed by someone he’d almost call a friend or by a complete stranger to whom he’s never done anything.

“We’ve been running counterintelligence on them, and I think we’re ready to go on the offensive.”

“So what’s the plan?”

Natasha smiles, looking extremely pleased with herself, and tells them.

Phil blinks.

It’s so crazy it just might work.

\---

Tony Stark storms into HQ the next morning. He heads straight to Fury’s office, ignoring Fury’s assistant’s protests that the Director is in a meeting and he can’t go in there, and slams the door open with a very satisfying and self-righteous bang. And then makes a sharp 90 degree turn because Fury is not behind his desk as he clearly expected, but at the conference table on the far right of his office with Hill and a dozen or so agents.

In his room, Phil watches the surveillance feed, fingers drumming against the table in an unusual show of nerves. Clint reaches out and takes his hand, and Phil holds on gratefully.

“You!” Stark says, pointing an accusing finger at Fury. “I know what you did!”

Fury looks unimpressed.

“Mr Stark, I’m in a meeting.”

“Oh, you’re in a meeting. Right. Hello, Agents, hi, how are you all doing today? _I don’t care_ if you’re in a meeting, I’ve got something to say to you and you’re going to listen! Because someone you told me was dead walked into your headquarters yesterday, and I want some answers!”

Fury sighs and the other agents glance at each other nervously. Clearly the security briefing is not going as planned. Phil looks for a reaction on their three suspects’ faces, but they all look appropriately uncomfortable. 

“Should we step outside, Sir?” Hill asks and Fury waves her off with a calm “This won’t take long”, which only seems to infuriate Stark more as he continues ranting:

“What am I saying? I don’t need any answers, I have them all already. Yeah, I hacked your system. _Again_. And you know what I found hidden away on a maintenance server? The fucking truth!”

“Mr Stark, whatever you think you found, it’s restricted information,” Fury interrupts, his eyebrow twitching. 

Of course Stark ignores him. “I thought Coulson was your friend. Instead you didn’t even wait ‘til his body was cold before you turned him into a fucking robot.”

“Stark!” Fury barks as a couple of people gasp. “You need to stop talking _right now_.”

“I’m calling security,” Hill says, punching the call button on the table next to her, but there is no stopping Stark now. He knows he’s got his audience hanging on his every word, and more than that he’s _pissed_.

“That’s right. Your dear Director turned his dead friend into a life model decoy. Really, Fury? You use _my_ tech and you don’t even ask me to consult? Noticed anything weird with him lately? What if you wired him wrong, uh?”

“That’s it, get him out of here,” Fury says just as security bursts into the room and tackles Stark. That doesn’t stop him talking though, and he keeps yelling about Coulson and LMDs all the way to the detention centre.

In his room, Phil sits back and tries to relax. 

“We’re really sure the Council doesn’t want a LMD as much as they want a supersoldier?” Clint asks quietly, and Phil shrugs.

“Natasha said they already have access to a couple. One more shouldn’t matter.”

But they can’t be sure, and for now all they can do is wait and hope their bargain pays off.

\---

Within hours Phil’s new ‘status’ becomes all HQ is talking about. The rumour is helped along further by Clint ‘finding out’ and pitching a fit at Fury in a very public hallway. Personally Phil thinks he goes a little overboard, but he sells it and the gossip mill performs as expected. The only downside is that Clint has to keep his distance in public while he ‘takes some time to reflect’, so the vents it is for now.

In the evening Fury pretends to mellow enough to let Stark out of the brig – that or he gets honestly tired of Pepper Potts calling every hour with threats of lawyers and suits. Phil thinks Nick enjoyed keeping Stark locked up a little more than strictly professional, but he can hardly blame him. After all, he’s had plenty of daydreams about tazing the man during their rocky beginnings.

He gets into the elevator a floor below Stark, the camera already on a loop while Clint works the manual override that controls the stops, and Tony’s double-take makes Phil’s lips twitch into a smile.

“Wait. You– you–” He peers at Phil, and then pokes his face with a finger. Phil is not impressed. “I’m a genius. You look just like yourself.”

“Mr Stark.”

“No, I mean, you know, right? Or is that another of Fury’s big secrets? Because I’ve got to tell you, I’m getting sick of those so here it is, you ready? You’re a LMD. That’s right, Life Model Decoy. Noticed anything different lately?”

Phil sighs and hits the stop button – this is going to take longer than planned. “Stark, I’m not a LMD.”

“Uh, sorry to be the one to tell you this, but yes, you are. I saw the files.”

“You saw the files we needed you to see.”

Stark blinks. Thinks about it. Frowns. “Wait, what?”

“There’s a mole at SHIELD. We needed your help to feed them false information.”

“So, what? You planted those files knowing I’d come looking for answers once you resurfaced and then used me to spread the good word? You didn’t think to, oh, I don’t know, _ask me first_?”

Phil looks back at him steadily. “We needed you to be convincing. You knowing the information was fake would have just gotten in the way of that. You’re not trained for this, Stark.”

Stark smiles bitterly. “Right, of course. And manipulating people is so much more SHIELD’s style.”

Phil inclines his head slightly. He understands how he feels, in a way – after all, Fury lied to him for months before his hand was forced and he had to tell him the truth. But that’s Phil’s job and he accepts it. Stark is a civilian, and one who’s been betrayed plenty already. He’s also brilliant, and so he goes straight to the point:

“Why a LMD though? I know I’ve made a lot of robot jokes, but that’s really specific.”

“I’m afraid that’s classified,” Phil says with his best poker face, and Stark snorts.

“I’m sure. You know I’m going to find out eventually.”

“No, you won’t.”

Stark considers that and then shrugs dismissively. “So what have you been doing all this time? You don’t call, you don’t write – people might think you were dead.”

Phil sighs. “That was the point, Stark. As you can see, things are a little… complicated at the moment.”

“And your mole problem, it’s resolved?”

“Half-way there.”

“Good, that’s good. I’m still pissed at you though.”

“I know.”

“Okay then. As long as we’re all clear on that.”

“We are.”

“Good.”

Phil gets the elevator moving again and taps his comms. once.

“All clear for 14,” Clint tells him, and Phil hits the button accordingly.

“Tell Pepper I’ll call her soon,” he says as the elevator slows. “And I _am_ sorry.”

Tony doesn’t answer, but Phil supposes that’s the best he could hope for.

\---

Phil heads back to his quarters and is a little disappointed to find them empty. His phone rings. Natasha.

“It’s Richardson,” she tells him. “He’s just made contact.”

“Thank you.” _For everything_ , he doesn’t add but she hears it anyway.

“Any time.” She hangs up, always succinct, and Phil sits down, mulling things over.

They’ll have to keep Richardson active for a few more months, subtly restricting his access and limiting the amount of damage he can make. It’s been a while since their Alaskan base had an inspection – he will have to suggest it to Fury. 

With the mole mostly taken care off, Phil finds himself contemplating the possible ramifications. If all goes well and the WSC loses interest in him, he’ll be able to spend more time in New York between missions. In fact, there is no reason why his team can’t be based at HQ when they’re not in the field – he knows May would enjoy being home, and FitzSimmons would probably appreciate the extra lab space. Now that all of SHIELD and the Avengers know he’s alive and with the WSC hopefully off his back, all the reasons Fury had to keep him away are gone. Maybe–

There is a noise above his head, and Phil smiles. He can plan for the future tomorrow, he decides, and meets Clint half-way when he lowers himself down from the ceiling.

“I got lube and condoms,” Clint tells him after he’s finished kissing him breathless. He’s grinning, looking very pleased with himself and a little dusty and dishevelled from crawling through cramped spaces. There is a love bite on his throat that Phil doesn’t remember leaving there, and it makes him want to do it all over again. 

Then Clint’s words catch up with him and:

“Bedroom. Now.”


End file.
